1964: Beatles fans crowd BCL
to hear Davis talk of Fab Four tour

November 19, 2014
Santa Paula News

Beatles’ fans crowded into Blanchard Community Library but there was no screaming frenzy that accompanied the moppet haired band on their first tour of America that helped seal their rock ‘n’ roll reign of the 1960s.

Fifty-years later two of the Beatles are gone, but the long ago sound of excited screaming was still in the air as journalist Ivor Davis described his adventures when he accompanied the Beatles on their first North American tour. 

Davis, a resident of Ventura, is the author of The Beatles and Me on Tour

(Cockney Kid Publishing, $15.99), and his presentation and book signing at the library was a happening of nostalgia.

“Oh, I’m here because of David,” Marion Totheroh said of her son. “He really liked him,” but flashing back to when she was the mother of the then-teenager Marion admitted, “I was not a fan... “

Library Director Ned Branch told the crowd Davis’ appearance, “Is the inaugural,” of events planned for a new adults program. 

The library went all out purchasing a Beatles cardboard standup for photo opportunities with the Fab Four, Xavier “Big X” Montes and students playing Beatles songs, a raffle of Beatles memorabilia.

Davis, noted Branch, is an author known for a wide range of works including the first book written about the notorious Manson Family murders, was present at the Ambassador Hotel when Robert Kennedy was assassinated and covered the trials for both. 

“Ivor has witnessed a great bit of history,” including his two decade stint as editor of Los Angeles magazine.

But Davis was just a 24-year-old underpaid foreign correspondent, head of the bureau’s one-man Hollywood office, got a call from London from the editor of the Daily Express who Davis said told him, “ ‘Hey, get on a plane, the Lads of Liverpool are coming,’ “ and instructed him to meet them in San Francisco. 

Davis, a native of East London, was told to write about the Beatles, travel with them, eat and drink with them and ghostwrite a column for George Harrison.

“The Beatles and Me on Tour” is filled with anecdotes and observations about that crazy summer of ‘64 and more, including sex, drugs and rock ‘n’ roll, but Davis concentrated on the latter for his BCL presentation.

There were many characters along the way: Ed Sullivan who showcased The Beatles on his television show, Beatles manager Brian Epstein who “Took these greasy, leather wearing guys and turned them into these sweet boys we know,” who now evoked screams from hundreds of women wherever they went and shrieks from thousands that attended their concerts.

The noise was so loud and constant at concerts said Davis, “Ringo had to learn to lip read,” so the drummer would know what song was being played by John, Paul and George. 

The first concert Davis saw was at the Cow Palace and thereafter he was with the Fab Four for five weeks, sitting in the front row of concerts when he was belted by the jellybeans thrown by thousands of fans.

“I should have worn a coat of armor,” noted Davis.

At the end of the concert the lads would drop their instruments and rush from the stage, never an encore, to jump into cars waiting with engines running to spirit them away ahead of the screaming fans. Sometimes, said Davis, the boys would use alternate transportation or use Davis - who always left the concert ahead of the crowd - as a stand-in Beatle to lure away the screaming women, dangerous duty.

Davis attended every concert, flew with the lads on their chartered plane and stayed in the same besieged hotels.

Although Davis got to know John, Paul, George and Ringo intimately, he said the first time they met the boys were so jet lagged they were barely coherent... and certainly not welcoming. 

When introduced, “They all sort of grunted, were more interested in watching television - my god they all loved American color television it really was a highpoint of their tour, all the hotels with their tellys!”

Room service was also popular with the Beatles.

Working with Harrison on the column did not go well at first: “I was supposed to send it to the newspaper early,” in the day but Davis said Harrison did not get up until 3 p.m. so the journalist wrote the pieces on his own.

Harrison, said Davis, was not happy, but he started getting up earlier to work with the journalist on the pieces.

During a question and answer session, Davis said he had no favorite Beatle but perhaps belied his answer by his comments: “John was brilliant, very funny, sometimes he put his foot in his mouth but he was a genius, had such a quick wit,” that Davis was only equaled when he later met Robin Williams whose mind had the same “warp speed... “

Beatles concerts were “26 minutes and 38 seconds,” and at least one opening act, like others ignored by the crowds, bailed on the tour. 

But all the adulation made it hard for the Fab Four: “We kind of became companions in arms, although I could get out and they were like prisoners in the hotels and they didn’t have anybody to talk to. They had to talk to somebody, and I was around.”

They drank, played games - Lennon cheated at Monopoly - but, “I managed to beat him at poker,” which helped Davis to subsidize the cost of traveling with the group.

All in all, said Davis, “They were having a pretty miserable time, half the time they didn’t even know where they were,” and greatly appreciated a few days at a dude ranch where they could relax and enjoy the outdoors.

Paul was a “schmoozer,” Ringo “very intelligent and friendly” but seemed on edge because of his status as the new drummer as they toured America with their early music which Davis described as “lollypop... it was George Martin and Geoff Emerick that helped them,” create the soundtrack of a generation.

The Beatles, of course, were “A chick magnet and they met the right girls and the wrong girls... “

And the publicly minded girls: Davis said the “voluptuous” Jayne Mansfield showed up at their rented Hollywood house and appealed greatly to John so the boys allowed themselves to be persuaded to visit the Whiskey A-Go-Go.

Mansfield, being groomed to take over if the studio dropped Marilyn Monroe, had tipped off the paparazzi that Fab Four were going to be at the club. 

Being intoxicated didn’t help when one photographer, “Stuck his camera right up John’s nose,” and the Beatle flung his drink at him... hitting another sexpot Mamie Van Doren. 

“It was,” said Davis, Van Doren’s “moment of glory!” 

But for The Beatles it was the final nail in the coffin of trying to go into public. 

Davis said that at the time he didn’t think too hard of the tour, and only later realized the experience had “Sprinkled me with magic Beatles dust... “





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